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Tarona Taafaki: Boxer lands Tuvalu’s first Commonwealth Games medal without winning a fight
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Seaside FM – Local radio along the Holderness coast
Tarona Taafaki was given a bye to the last four of the women’s 75kg division after only five fighters entered the competition.
But, under Commonwealth Games rules, every semi-finalist boxer receives a bronze medal, meaning that Taafaki, 20, had made history.
Her coach and father, Badi Taafaki, said the people of Tuvalu will celebrate the medal and use it to highlight a climate change emergency.
He said the medal “means everything” to the tiny island nation – which at 10 square miles is the fourth-smallest country in the world.
Taafaki is not the first boxer to win a Commonwealth Games medal without winning a fight.